Resources to help you prepare for the Trump years

Summary: Trump’s victory surprised the experts. But the potential for radical change, the alienation that caused it, and the resulting rise of populism have all been discussed at the FM website. Here are resources to help you prepare for what lies ahead for America during the next four years. Understanding is the first step. See tomorrow’s post a closer look at what we can expect during the Trump years.

“In preliminary exit polls …voters are expressing more fear than excitement over both a Trump and a Clinton win.”
— “The Country Is Terrified” by Ella Koeze at 538. Fear is the real winner in 2016.

Clinton ran on the Anything But Issues platform, with the motto “She’s Not Trump!” It started with exaggerations and evolved into hysteria. The public wasn’t convinced; the backlash might have put Trump in the White House.

A new era has begun, in many ways

“Although Nero’s death had at first been welcomed with outbursts of joy, it roused varying emotions, not only in the city among the senators and people and the city soldiery, but also among all the legions and generals; for the secret of empire was now revealed, that an emperor could be made elsewhere than at Rome.”

Now it begins. Trump will have a solid majority in both Houses of Congress — run by far-right core groups eager to reshape America. Their ideas about economics range from wrong to bogus. They will start with cutting taxes for the rich, cutting services for the middle class, and cutting medical care for the poor — plus expanding our already gargantuan military spending. Stocking the Supreme Court with right-wing extremists will give them a generation to revise America during the next generation, rolling back our laws to those of the Gilded Age.

We can only guess where it will end. People have no idea what’s coming down for America. Let’s give ourselves better choices, left and right, in 2020. If we start today we might have enough time. It won’t be easy.

(6) Selling off Federal land cheaply to the rich and corporations, or granting it to the States (who then do so).

You ask an important question about Trump’s populism. Some of his ideas will be difficult for Congress to refuse — such as limiting immigration and ending the increasingly series of pro-multi-national corp treaties misleadingly sold as “free trade”. Some might be passable if Trump is even marginally competent as President (which I doubt), such as more infrastructure spending.

Some of his ideas can be implemented directly by him — but will he? Such as throttling back our mad foreign wars.

Then there are the second wave right-wing ideas, after they have done the above. Such as attacking the Fed and attacking unions, which Trump probably will support. Some a Populist would oppose, such as cutting social security and Medicaid.

We are in for four very bad years. The Right has imitated the Left in electing someone based on their dreams, but the person they’ve choosen is a far worse choice. Obama disappointed his supporters in many ways. Trump will horrify many of this, I expect.

Robert Lewis Stevenson allegedly said that Everybody gets a banquet of consequences. We going to get ours.